Detroit Board of Police Commissioners Personnel & Training Committee meeting, February 2023 

The committee selected Victoria “Vicki” Shah and Jerome Warfield Sr. as its hiring recommendations for board secretary and chief investigator, respectively. The Board of Police Commissioners (BOPC) will consider these recommendations at its next meeting. 

Both of these positions have been vacant since 2020 and filled by interim employees. Committee Chair Jesus Hernandez emphasized that whoever will be hired as the chief investigator must prioritize solving the citizen complaints backlog and finding a way to prevent future backlogs. 

Shah is a police oversight advocate and a frequent commenter at the board’s public meetings. Her prior experience includes managing a company’s vendor contracts and being a licensed emergency medical technician. In 2021, she was also a write-in candidate to be a police commissioner for District 7, losing to now-Commissioner Ricardo Moore. 

Warfield is a former Detroit police commissioner who served two terms from 2009 to 2013. He was twice appointed as the board chair; his second term as chair lasted a year until he resigned from the board in 2013. In 2022, Warfield told the Detroit News that he applied four times for the chief investigator position. 

The committee conducted six hours of interviews with six candidates overall. In addition to Shah and Warfield, the committee interviewed board secretary candidates Brenda Moner and Robin Underwood, and chief investigator candidates Courtney Blakes and Paul Lilly. In the committee’s scoring process, Shah and Lilly scored the highest point averages from the police commissioners. 

Police Commissioner Willie Burton abstained from participating in the interview process and candidate selection. He disagreed with the hiring process. Burton said a full list of applicants and resumes were not provided to police commissioners, and that the board should be presented with more than three candidates per position.